Rafa’s Rallying Cry – We’re A Team And Must Keep Working Hard

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

3:45pm Wednesday, November 30th, 2016

Commented 56 times

Newcastle goalkeeper Matz Sels is getting criticism for last night’s defeat after he could not hold onto a shot from Marcus Henriksen and the ball went to Scottish International Robert Snodgrass who gleefully slammed the ball into the net for the equalizer.

That was only just after Newcastle had just taken the lead with a goal from Mo Diame early in extra time.

Rafa was not pleased with the outcome of the game last night, after we had controlled the game for long periods and carved out chances in the first 90 minutes that we didn’t take.

Rafa is big on team spirit and that the team as a whole needs to take responsibility for the defeat last night (and the wins too) and blaming the goalkeeper is too simple – and Rafa didn’t even want to talk about the goalkeeper after the game last night.

This is what Rafa has said today as reported in the Chronicle:

“I don’t want to talk about the goalkeeper – the team as a team made mistakes. That is what allowed them to score.”

“It is not about the keeper – it was the midfielders, the defenders, everyone. We allowed them to get to a position where they should not have been.”

“When you are winning so many games, every time you have a defeat or a bad result, people will talk and ask questions. Now, we will see what will happen.”

“But it was a long season before this week, and it will be a long season after this week.” “We still have to carry on working hard and doing things in the same way.”

“We had five or six chances in the first half where we could have scored, and we played really well against a Premier League team.”

“The game was different in the second half, they were pushing, but still we were defending and doing well.”

“In extra-time, we had the control, but we made one or two mistakes and that is something we have to do better.”

“To concede the goal in the way we conceded, and to allow them to counter-attack in the way they did, is something we have to manage and improve.”

Rafa never really wants to talk about individuals after a game whether they have played well or whether they have played poorly.

That’s one way to build up team spirit that will tell during the big games as our lads get more and more experienced playing together.

Our lads can learn massively from what happened last night and yes – we should have won the game – but we didn’t.

And let’s not crucify Matz Sels – we had enough of that stuff after the Aston Villa game – Matz is a Newcastle goalkeeper and we need to respect him for that.

56 comments so far

No keeper was going to win that shootout for us. Sure, Sels pushed a hard shot back forward into the penalty area, but our defenders have just as much of a right to get to that ball first as their attackers and they won that race. They shouldn’t have gotten that opportunity from the knockdown to begin with which is on our defence and DMs.

Lots of things wrong with how things went for their goal that had nothing to do with Sels and you will never win a shootout if 3 of your first 4 miss, no matter the heroics of your keeper.

Sorry but we are against 10 men, they shouldn’t have a clean look from the top of the box with another guy beating our backline to the rebound, pure and simple. If you’re against 10 men, your keeper isn’t losing you the game.

Mag52, Like I said, it’s more to do with his thirteen major honours and his place as a UEFA elite manager plus the way he has instilled belief in the city. Your argument for auld rubber lips is pretty stale. I’d say the tenth most expensive squad is quite expensive and shouldn’t be the worst club in all four divisions in terms of annual results.

I supported Sels right up until the Villa game where is lack of confidence and belief cost us two points, the manager had every faith in him and he should have grown with each clean sheet, instead he got steadily worse until he finally lost the plot at Villa.

I’ve never said Pardew was or is anything other than an average manager. His record clearly shows that. With us, he kept us in the PL and got us into Europe, while operating under the old discredited Ashley regime. A reasonable effort, some might say, so let’s hope that Rafa, a guy with twice the ability of AP, can take us that much farther. It was the ott abuse that he got from people like yourself which was unnecessary.

do the folk on here that keep pointing out we need this that and the other honestly think Rafa doesn’t know what we need Rafa did an amazing job putting together the squad he did in the short time he had other clubs tried and failed to put decent squads together does the squad need tweaking of course it does will Rafa tweak it of course he will but just in case you haven’t noticed the transfer window is CLOSED

Mag52, He did just that, and he done it with one of the most horrendous periods of football we’ve ever witnessed at the club while breaking every unwanted record, his losing record was only worsed by the buffoon we let replace him.

I’m no fan of Sels, but that game was lost by not scoring, first and foremost, and was then doomed by the defensive lapse right after the goal.

I agree that any of our other keepers would probably have held it or pushed it too far wide for someone to follow up. But in the cups, you play your secondary keeper and Sels is what we’ve got right now until Elliot is ready to go again.

I’d be shocked if Rafa’s privately blaming Sels for the loss last night.

Aye, I agree that we were probably complacent which resulted in the chance. It’s certainly a learning experience and a chance for the squad to refocus on consistency across the full match. Would be worrying if it was commonplace, but hopefully this is just a one-off (or two- if you count Blackburn).

Hard to blame just the keeper when we were so dominant and three players missed pens. A bit different against Villa, you could blame Diame for missing that sitter that would have put us out of sight but it was Sels complete melt down that gave Villa belief and made the team flap.

‘…..the buffoon we let replace him’. That’s a joke. In what way did WE let Ashley replace AP ? I can’t remember being consulted. Oh, but maybe you were. You had, after all, been doing your best to direct the flack Ashley should have been taking during the Pardew years away from fat Ash, the root cause of our problems ever since he set foot in SJP.

Mag52, I meant we as in the club, I should have said they as in the board. I don’t know where you have been for the last six years but I have been one of the most outspoken posters on here regarding Mike Ashleys ownership, the clue might be in my username. What was your rubber lipped hero doing to deflect the flak from himself to our portly owner, dedicating wins to him after being hung out to dry, that’s what!

Very disappointed about last night, especially after all the missed chances. But it was a reality check tbh, we have a lot of improving to do if we’re going to compete in the premier league. I’ll not mention those pathetic penalties.

Come off it. That user name is nothing but a front to disguise your true feelings towards the fat one. It’s blame anyone but Ash for you isn’t it ? And you know what, if things do start to go pear shaped once we get back to the PL, with Ashley reverting to type, taking back the purse strings and making managing impossible for Rafa, I bet I know who’ll be the first to dig the knife in to the manager. You’ve got a history of it.

Mag52, You sound like one of those Alfred Hitchcock madmen who think they’ve got it all sussed before throwing themselves through a window. Disguising my true feelings for the fat man? Blaming anyone but him? Blaming Rafa if he stitches him up? Go and have a nice cup of tea and give your head a shake.

We already have Gayle and Mitrovic doing alreet at the minute and battling for a starting spot. Im a tad concerned with Perez’s form this season so far. Young Adam Armstrong couldn’t of did any worse. I really hope Perez’s form improves when he plays.

I can’t bare to watch that penalty shoot out ever again. I watched it live on TV and was totally devastated with how we gifted them the semi’s at the end. Hard to take when you are the best team over 90 minutes.

At least we have a game quickly on Friday and a chance to put it right quickly. Hopefully we will get a good result.

health update

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and while the PSA count has risen a little, there's no evidence the cancer has spread.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

There is no cure - but there are treatments to prevent the cancer from spreading further.

I am so thankful for the latest results and in awe of the doctors and nurses at the Rex Cancer Center in Raleigh, North Carolina

Now when is Rafa going to sign his new deal and start making Newcastle great again?

Ed Harrison

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